GIS labs 2013/14

Weeks 1-5

In the first five labs, and for the coursework, we will use the GRASS GIS system. This will be used on campus PCs, but you can quite easily install in on cygwin at home, or on linux or Windows, although I cannot support any of these home installs - I find that the Windows binaries are OK for what you need. We will use the GRASS software which has an improving GUI, and is stable, very flexible and powerful.

Lab handouts have all the information on what you'll be doing in the labs.

It's important to try and get the coursework done early in the term (which means you should be working on the labs in your own time as well). The two supervised hours a week we have timetabled is to help with issues and questions that arise, and you can also post them on the discussion board.

Useful information

Week 6 - terrain models

This lab uses the open-source software Quantum GIS to illustrate the concepts and relative benefits of contours, TINs and DEMs. Quantum GIS has a whole variety of puthon plugins for data processing, and can also access GRASS data and functions.

This is a lab designed by Laurence Chittock, whose PhD? research is all about planning transport infrastructure and charging locations for electric cars. It will take more than the 2 hours available, but the software is installed on all EAS lab machines, so you can continue in your own time.

Week 9 - georeferencing and map projections/transformations

This lab uses ArcMap? again. You'll warp an aerial photo of the campus using selected ground control points, and then look at some of the techniques by which the pixels are resampled. There are also some GPS trails to work with, and a few example map projections to compare using Google Earth/Maps as a backdrop.

The data you need for this lab is all on the University network, on your X: drives.

Week 10 - Web services for GIS

To inspect request and response content and parameters, you'll need to use something like Firebug (for Firefox) or equivalent developer tools for other browsers. If you are not familiar with Firebug, follow THESE INSTRUCTIONS.